Do i need to replace my bulbs?

[holdyourlight]

So the brown stuff (looks like diatoms) on my sand and little patches of cyano on my rocks have sprung up about 3 weeks ago and have gotten progressively worse. Phophates were tested with the Hanna yesterday: .02
all other levels are normal. i did a 36 hour "lights out" which had no effect. The tank was set up in January of this year putting the bulbs at about 10 months. They are not overdriven and are ran for about 11 hours a day. Seems like it would be on the early end of the spectrum to replace the bulbs, but not really sure what else it could be that's causing the algae?

 

[Pizzapro83]

Do you feed a lot? I try to change my bulbs every nine months to be safe.

 

[holdyourlight]

Do you feed a lot? I try to change my bulbs every nine months to be safe.

Nope, all my local reefing buddies say i feed to little:nerd: and i do not spot feed either. I feed a mixture of PE mysis and rod's food-the equivalent of about 1 "cube" per day....

If/When i change the bulbs-should i do anything to accilimate the tank to the new spectrum (shorter cycle, screens over tank, ect.)?

 

[Pizzapro83]

Yea i always shorting the light period. I go down to three hours and incress an hour every week till i am at what i want

 

[Viva'sReef]

Have you started adding anything to the tank recently? Vodka or anything like that?

I started adding MB7 about a week ago, and I'm getting something similar and a haze algae growing on my glass every few hours I have to reclean the glass

 

[holdyourlight]

Have you started adding anything to the tank recently? Vodka or anything like that?

I started adding MB7 about a week ago, and I'm getting something similar and a haze algae growing on my glass every few hours I have to reclean the glass

nope, don't dose anything at all!

 

[Supreme Reefs]

Are the daylights on 11hours? or is that the actinics?

 

[JNye]

11 hours, man i only run my light for 5 hours. what kind of bulbs? if they are T5 i would DEF. change. MH, i dunno, but that is 3300 hours, prolly done.

 

[holdyourlight]

6x54w T5's ran on a TEK

2x Blue + 11 hours a day
4x Blue +/Fiji purple 8 hours a day

 

[Stray32]

I run my T5s for about 9 hours with no issues. I had some cyano a few weeks ago and thought it was my bulbs as well. A few days later I found my Diamond Goby half eaten :( Got him out, and the cyano cleared up within a few days.

Check for a missing fishy...

 

[holdyourlight]

I run my T5s for about 9 hours with no issues. I had some cyano a few weeks ago and thought it was my bulbs as well. A few days later I found my Diamond Goby half eaten :( Got him out, and the cyano cleared up within a few days.

Check for a missing fishy...

all 12 fish are accounted for............except..............

hmmm....my mandarin kicked the bucket about a month ago and the nassarius ate about half of him and i was going to pull the rest of him out but never saw him again and figured they finished him off.......the problem is the rest of him would be VERY hard to find if there were in fact any leftovers:cry:

 

[Stray32]

all 12 fish are accounted for............except..............

hmmm....my mandarin kicked the bucket about a month ago and the nassarius ate about half of him and i was going to pull the rest of him out but never saw him again and figured they finished him off.......the problem is the rest of him would be VERY hard to find if there were in fact any leftovers:cry:

BINGO! Let it cycle through and try and suck the cyano out with a turkey baster. Things should settle down soon.

 

[MarvinsReef]

BINGO! Let it cycle through and try and suck the cyano out with a turkey baster. Things should settle down soon.

when you do your water change, just suction the cyano with a hose... easiest way to do... coz I had to do with mine... ;)

 

[aerius007]

all 12 fish are accounted for............except..............

hmmm....my mandarin kicked the bucket about a month ago and the nassarius ate about half of him and i was going to pull the rest of him out but never saw him again and figured they finished him off.......the problem is the rest of him would be VERY hard to find if there were in fact any leftovers:cry:

I would think a decent cleaning crew would have taken care of that in a matter of hours.

 

[holdyourlight]

I would think a decent cleaning crew would have taken of that in a matter of hours.

i have a good crew in there....i was pretty sure they finished it off..thats why i am still wondering if its the lights

 

[holdyourlight]

just remembered-i saw one of my acans eat the rest of that mandarin!!!

so its gotta be the lights??!